Seal



March 7, 1944. s, MACKEY g' 2,343,564

. SEAL Filed Mafch 21, 1941 ATTU RN CY Patented Mar. 7, 1944- UNITED STATES PATENT o-FFI'cs SEAL Alexander S. Mackey, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada,

assignor to Ketchum Manufacturing (30., Limited, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Application March 21, 1941, Serial No. 384,562 2 Claims. (or. 292-324) This invention relates to seals and a method of forming them, the seal so formed being particularly adaptable as a car seal.

The general type of seal with which this application is concerned, is known, and, includes a casing formed in two sections secured together, designed to hold one end of a sealing strip and having a limited means of access such as to permit the opposite end of the strip to be inserted and locked within the casing,

The general type of locking means employed under the present invention is also known and involves the use of one or more split rings, poised in spread apart relation within the casing, and designed to be dislodged by the free end of the strip, when inserted in the casing, to cause the rings to enter orifices, in either end of the strip, and thus lock both ends together within the casing.

Seals of this type must avoid play between the end of the strip held in the casing, and the casing itself. Otherwise the efiect of such play, which is present in. some prior structures, will have the tendency to dislodge the rings from their poised position merely through ordinary handling which results in rendering the seal useless, since the dislodged rings could not secure the opposite end of the strip when inserted in the casing.

Special means has been employed in the past in some instances to prevent play of this kind but the means employed in such instances have been complicated, bulky and of such character as to render the seals impractical by reason, of complication of manufacture and expense which, must necessarily be low in order to provide a practical article of this kind.

An object of the present invention is to avoid the disadvantages of the prior art and to produce an article of the kind in question and a method of producing it, both of which are simple, the resulting article being low in cost and. avoiding play between the held end of the strip and the casing.

A further object of the invention is to provide a strong and substantial seal which is easy to manipulate and which includes a simple form of, means for guiding the locking tongue into locking position.

In following the method, a known types of casing is employed formed in two sections. designed to be secured together, one of which has a slot, for receiving a strip of material designed to form part of the seal and formed with orificed ends which are finally designed. to. be secured" together by; split. rings. According to the method the slotted section of the casing receives the strip which, is threaded through the slot until the head of the strip carrying the split rings is partially disposed within the section. The head is thus completely enclosed by moving the sections of the casing together to mate with one another, and the sections are then die-pressed to connect them together as a unitary casing While simultaneously forming a projection on the interior of the casing at a point, registering with a recess formed in the head of the strip disposed within the casing, so as to cause the projection so formed to enter such recess and secure the strip against movement relative to the casing. I h

In this simple manner a practical seal is produced in the ordinary automatic torming operation and in such a manner as to avoid extra cost either inmaterial or labour.

The resulting sealalso includes further structure which lends to its practicability. The features of the invention will. be clearly understood by reference to the following detailed. specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing- Figure 1 is a perspective View ofv a seal according to the present invention with the free end of the locking strip disposed and. secured within the casing.

Figure 2 is an enlarged perspective detail of the casing sections before being secured to form the unitary casing.

Figure 3 is an enlarged perspective detail of the locking head of the seal normally disposed within the casing and showing the locking rings passing through both ends of the strip in. the case Where the seal is locked.

Figure 4 is an enlarged longitudinal; section taken through. the seal casing and showing the free end of the strip fragmentarily poised outside the casing. ready to beinserted therewithin; part of the strip-being broken away.

Figure 5 is a. view similar to Fig. 3-but showing the free end of the strip inserted within: the casing and locked therein bytherings,

Figure 6 is a longitudinal section taken substantially'through the-centre of.Fig;..4;,

Figure 7 is av longitudinal section .taken substantially throughthe-centre of:Fig. 5;. g

Figure 8- is a sectional. view similar to Figs. 6 and '7 but illustrating the free end of the strip inserted within the casing .to a point where it is touching the rings and about to dislodge them from their poised'posit-ion. 1

Figure 9- is a sectional detail of a die. structure the strip C is preferably constituted by bending over the extremity I4 of this end of the strip to overlap a portion of the strip, the overlapped portions being orificed as at I5. and the bent portion being of enlarged tubular formation as at I6 so as to provide a substantial bearing edge or area II which may be employed to engage the interior wall of the casing in order to produce a substantially solid assembly. The tubular portion I6 of the locking end is preferably recessed or notched as'at I8 intermediate of the side edges of the strip, to receive on portion of a split ring or a plurality of split rings I9-which will straddle the locking end of the strip, the free ends of the ringer rings straddling and bearing upon a solid portion of the strip in advance of the orifices I5. This is clearlyshown in Fig. 6 of the drawing. The notched portion l8 of the tubular end I6 presents a bearing surface of some substantial depth which will function to assist in preventing any possibility of dislodgment 0f the ring or rings should they have any tendency to swing sideways.

The end of the strip opposite to the locking end or head is formed in the manner of a tongue 20 suitably orificed as at 2I at a point to coincide and cooperate with the orifices I in the sections of the strip forming the locking end or head, when the tongue is introduced between these sections within the casing B.

The sealing strip 0 and casing B are assembled by slotting the tongue 20 through the slot I2 of section II of the casing and permitting the strip to pass through the casin to a point where, the bent over extremit I4 of the locking head passes through the slot I2, and the locking head is substantially housed by section II of the easing. Section I0 of the casing is then secured to section II to form a unitary casing and completely house the locking head or end I3 of the sealing strip C.

When the locking head I3 of sealing strip C is positioned within the casing B the bent over extremity I4 of the locking head projects beyond the slot and by having this extremity inclined from the plane of that part of the sealing strip which it overlies, this extremity and a substantial portion of the bent over portion of the strip forms a guide for the tongue 20 to enter between these parts of the locking head, and facilitate its passage through slot I2 into the final osition within the casing. Thus, a simple formation of thelocking head including the bent over end not only forms a strong construction but provides a very efllcient guiding means, which when caused to separate slightly whenthe tongue is introduced between the extremity I4 and the portion of the strip 0 which it overlies, as shown particularly in Fig. 8, the split portions of the ring or rings I9 ar caused to separate to a greater extent, thus making them more readily susceptible to dislodgment. It is apparent, of course, that when the end of the tongue engages the section of the ring or rings opposite to the split portion thereof, as shown in Fig. 8, and is pushed further into the casing an engagement of the end of the tongue with this portion of the ring or rings will cause the split portions to be dislodged from their poised position, as shown in Fig. 6, so that the split ends will slip into the orifices I5 and also through the orifice 2| in the tongue which then would be positioned in registry with the orifices l5. Consequently, the tongu 20 would then be locked within the casing by the ring or rings I9, as clearly shown in Fig. 7.

It is necessary to maintain the locking head and the casing against relative movement as otherwise the ring or rings I9 might readily be dislodged from their poised position before the seal in question was used. In other words, relative movement between the locking head and the casing occasioned merely through handling or stacking the seals would cause dislodgment of the rings in many instances. To avoid such relative movement, and in a simple manner, I form opposite edges of the locking head I3 with the side notches 22 preferably positioned so as to lie substantially opposite to the open end of section II when the sealing strip C has been located in this section prior to effecting union between sections I0 and II. Section II is then formed with an internal peripheral bead 23 which is forced into the side notches 22 in the simple step of uniting section ID with section II so that, as clearly shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the bead 23 and notches 22 prevent relative movement between the easing B and locking head I3. This is accomplished preferably in the step of uniting the sections I0 and II.

The sections Ill and II are specially constructed so that they may be readily united to form a unitary casing. In this connection section III is formed with an offset enlarged mouth 24 defined by a peripheral flange or skirt 25 which is designed to telescope over the flared open end of section II which terminates in the substantially radially extending flange 26.

According to the preferred method of uniting these sections and simultaneously forming the bead 23, section III is suitably carried in one part 2! of a die and section II in the other part 28. Part 28 is formed with a die cavity to receive section II firmly, the die cavity having an enlarged mouth 29 of a diameter but slightly larger than the diameter of the open end of section I0. The lower extremity of section II around its periphery is held firmly in the die cavity which is formed with a shoulder 30 curved as at 30a to merge with the walls of the enlarged mouth 29. The flange 25 of section III is made slightly longer than what would normally be required to form a seam with flange 26 of section II for a purpose that will shortly appear. In uniting the sections together part 21 of the die is moved towards the part 28. The flange 25 of section I0 telescopes over the open flared end of section II including flange 26 thereof, until the free edge of flange 25 engages the curved portion 30a of the mouth 29 when the flange 25 is caused to curl around and envelop flange 26 of section II. On further movement of the die part 21 the flange 25 is firmly clinched around the belled mouth and flange 26 of section II and by reason of the fact that flange 25 of section I0 is long, the leading edge of this flange is projected diametrically inwardly of the die cavity as the joint is formed, by reason of the pressure between the die part 21 and the shoulder 30 in the cavity of die part 28, and to such an extent that it causes the wall of section II to give under its pressure so that the peripheral bead 23 is formed automatically in the assembling operation and forced into the side notches 22 of the locking head l3.

Preferably section II of the casing is constructed from material slightly thinner than that employed for the formation of section III of the casing. In this way, therefore, the wall of section H is caused to give readily under pressure of the leading edge of flange 25 of section II in the dieing operation to form the bead 23. Thus in this simple manner without requiring a special operation and also without requiring any complicated construction for the purpose, the locking head I3 is prevented from moving relatively to the casing B.

The Width of the sealing strip C is preferably substantially identical to the interior diameter of the casing so that a relatively neat fit is obtained when the article is assembled and as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, particularly, the enlarged bearing edge I! of the locking head engages the inner walls of section It! to add to the substantial construction provided.

The foregoing represents the preferred form of construction. It will be apparent, however, that the structure may be modified in some respects without departing from the spirit of the disclosure. It is possible, of course, to employ, instead of the notches 22 in the side of the looking head, shoulders which would cooperate with the bead 23 in a similar manner.

What I claim as my invention is:

l. A seal comprising a strip of material a casing, said casing formed in two sections designed to be connected together at right angles to the plane of the strip, one of said sections being slotted, said strip of material forming a part of the seal and designed to pass through said slot, said strip of material having a locking head disposed within the casing, said locking head having displaceable means for securing the opposite end of the strip when the latter is projected into the casing and means for preventing relative movement between the casing and the locking head including an inward projection of the side wall of the casing adjacent the connection of said sections and receiving means on the locking head for receiving said projection of the casing.

2. A seal comprising a strip of material a casing, said. casing formed in two sections designed to be connected together at right angles to the plane of the strip, one of said sections being slotted, said strip of material forming a part of the seal and designed to pass through said slot, said strip of material having a locking head disposed within the casing, said locking head having displaceable means for securing the opposite end of the strip when the latter is projected into the casing and means for preventing relative movement between the casing and the locking head including an internal peripheral bead formed in the wall of the casing, said locking head being formed with a recess in each side edge for receiving the bead.

ALEXANDER. S. MACKEY. 

